Maya Wise is alone in Hong Kong. British rule is coming to an end and so is Maya’s marriage. She drifts, wandering aimlessly through the crowded city streets.

Captivated by an elderly Chinese man, and his caged nightingale, she follows him home. But Ken Tiger is a man with a past. As Maya draws out his tale of lost love in wartime Shanghai, she pieces together other stories, other histories that will help her to imagine a new life for herself.